Sergeant Turbot told me that in his younger days he had come out to Singapore when it was little better than a sandbank with a few tumble-down huts upon it, inhabited by the followers of the Rajah, whose chief occupation was to pounce out and rob all passers-by.
“That was a good many years ago, as you may suppose,” said the sergeant. “There was, however, at that time, a man out in these parts who had a head on his shoulders. He was called Sir Stamford Raffles. He was Governor of Java, which our Government, very foolishly, afterwards gave up to the Dutch, who owned it before we took it. Well, Sir Stamford saw that it was very important to have a place to which the traders in those seas could resort under English protection, and so he got the Government to purchase the island from the Malay owners, and it was established as a free port. That was all that was done. People very quickly came and bought the land and built the warehouses, and the place became what you now see it.”
We had to keep a bright look-out as we passed through the Straits of Malacca. We made the northern end of Sumatra and were about a couple of days’ sail from it when the weather gave indications of a coming typhoon. All hands were on deck shortening sail when down it came upon us. Over heeled the old ship, and it seemed at first as if the masts would be taken out of her, or that she would go over altogether. She righted, however, and by desperate exertions she was made snug before any great damage was done. It reminded us somewhat of the one we had encountered at Hong Kong, but it was not so severe. Had we, however, delayed another five minutes in shortening sail, it would have made us look very foolish. All night we lay hove-to, trusting to One who looks after sailors, but feeling that we could do very little for ourselves. Next morning by daybreak the weather began to moderate. The hands had just been sent aloft to shake a reef out of the topsails, when Dicky Plumb, who was in the foretop, shouted out—
“A vessel on the lee bow! Dismasted! She seems a large ship, sir!”
All eyes were turned in the direction to which Mr Plumb pointed, but as yet the ship could not be seen from the deck. Mr Ormsby accordingly went aloft, and soon found that Mr Plumb was right. The Roarer was accordingly kept away towards her. As we approached her we saw signals of distress flying from a spar which had been secured to the stump of the mainmast, and, on passing near her, a man held up a board on which was written, “We are sinking! No time to be lost!”
There was, however, still a good deal of sea running, and it was no easy matter for a boat to go alongside a vessel rolling as she was, without any masts to steady her. Captain Sharpe, however, was not a man to desert his fellow-creatures in distress; indeed, I may say, it would be hard to find a captain in the British navy who would do so. We accordingly hove-to to leeward of the ship, and made a signal that we would send assistance as soon as possible. After waiting for a little time the boats were lowered. Mr Blunt went in one of them, and Mr Ormsby in the other. We watched them anxiously as they pulled towards the dismasted ship. Now they seemed as if about to be thrown upon her deck; now they sank down, and it appeared impossible that they could escape being crushed by her as she rolled over. At length, however, with great risk they got alongside, and we could see several women and children being lowered into them, and also a few men. At length they once more shoved off, and we watched them anxiously as they returned to the Roarer. I was standing near Dicky Plumb at the time they approached the ship; I saw him fix his eyes intently on one of the boats; he seized a glass and looked towards it:—
“Yes, I’m sure I’m right! Why, I do believe there is my respected mother! Yes, and there is the Brigadier and my sisters! Yes, yes! How wonderful! Pray Heaven they may be got on board in safety!” he added, with more feeling than I had ever before known him exhibit.
Every preparation had been made by Captain Sharpe to get the people out of the boats as they came alongside. The young ladies were first lifted up, for Mrs Brigadier would not go till she had seen them and her husband safe on board; she came last, and not till then did she discover that the ship was the Roarer, and that her son was on board. She received Dicky very affectionately; again and again she pressed him in her arms, and the tears rolled down her somewhat furrowed cheeks. Of course, his father and sisters exhibited the feeling that might have been expected. The boats returned immediately to the ship; and, to make a long story short, all the people from her were got safely on board; scarcely, however, had the last person left her, when her bows lifted, and then down she went as if to make a long dive; we looked, and looked in vain; she was never more destined to come up again.
“Oh, Jack!” said Dicky, a short time afterwards to me, “I am so thankful that my father and mother, and those dear sisters of mine, were got safely on board the Roarer; suppose we had been too late, and they had all gone to the bottom! And, I say, Jack, I have been talking about you; and have told them all the things you have been doing; and they want to see you, and have a talk with you; the captain, too, I can tell you, has been praising you, and said—what I have often said—that you ought to be on the quarter-deck.”
I thanked Master Dicky for his kind wishes; but replied (and I must honestly confess I did not speak the truth), that I had no ambition that way, but was very jovial and happy where I was.